Dior had a busy July.
Two car trips to the Okanagan in which she once again showed herself to be a star traveller on all counts. The time spent at a lakeside resort garnered her preferential treatment as a service dog in training, except that she was not allowed in the pool as she would not actually be supporting a human.
But a visit to a local off-leash beach gave her the opportunity to “test the water”, gain confidence, and finally learn how to swim. Once in… she’s a lab. :0)
The second trip included a funeral. Dior lay quietly under my chair for the two-hour service only licking the ankle of the lady next to us once. Many remarked how quiet and well-behaved she was during the hour-and-a-half reception following where she had to ignore interesting knees, lovely smelly feet and plates of food on knees and left on chairs.
Dior enjoyed a planned beach morning with some of her PADS friends at Crescent Beach Blackies Spit. An outing at the Campbell Valley off-leash dog park gave her and two other PADS dogs the most glorious romp in the smelliest mud wallow hole ever.
During a PADS puppy class field trip to Burnaby Lake, Dior encountered a metal open mesh overhead walkway and stairs. With much trepidation, she conquered the walkway luring with treats but found the stairs just too scary. From the top stair, she catapulted herself into the lap of our class trainer who was sitting 3 stairs down to encourage her. Needless to say, we took that for a win and she was carried to the bottom.
Dior’s successes for July were lovely Loose Leash Walks when on the Halty, and establishing a fantastic assortment of ‘go-in’ spaces, one of which needed a belly crawl. The ongoing challenge is jumping up on visitors if not on lead. She ended the month by entering her first heat just a few days before her 8-month birthday.
About a week and a half before the onset of her heat, Dior began to often decline to come when called, declining to ‘trade’ when she had something she shouldn’t, and she discovered she had height when she went up on her hind legs. Fortunately, it has not resulted in counter surfing in the kitchen, but she does check to see if there is anything on the dining table she can take and shred. Having a teenager of the 4-footed kind definitely requires endurance, patience & commitment to the end result.
She continues to love a cuddle, sleep in crazy positions, and sit on the stairs like a little human. Such is life with a puppy going into adolescence.
Submitted by: Heather DeVries
